I'm about to join Element AI later this December. Earlier today, the news broke out that it's being acquired by ServiceNow and will be treated as an AI research division in Canada. As per press release, the company is also expected to wind down most of it's core business and streamline it with the goals of ServiceNow My recruiter tells me that my position is safe and I'll be joining the same team and manager, though the goals of the team and their place in the organization is subject to change. I loved their interview process and was very impressed with the people I spoke to and though they have had a few hiccups meeting set expectations, I had a very good impression of their culture and was looking forward to joining. What is the ServiceNow culture like? Are there any cultural(or otherwise) issues about ServiceNow that could fundamentally change the nature of the startup? What types of AI problems is ServiceNow trying to solve? I have several onsites pending and am wondering whether I should wait a bit, try to get other offers and make a decision after getting more info as the details of the acquisition unfold over the coming weeks. Would love to get some input from folks at ServiceNow and Element AI. Edit: I'm not working as msft right now. Tc 130k cad Yoe 4 Update: Accepted the offer with the existing terms. Thanks for the inputs :)
Now is doing well, I don't see a reason for your to worry. Unless you have a competing offer. What's the TC that Element offered? Is it the same with Now as well?
Element offered around 130k. Recruiter did not have info about any changes in salary, except that my role is not affected by downsizing and that they would send a new offer plus contract in a day or two. Would be sweet to get an increment How is ServiceNow culture wise ?
It's good, I've heard varying experiences but I think for you it would be lot around how it at Element
Have been working for NOW for the last 6 years. I don’t regret even for a day. Great company with a good work culture!
Engineering culture is good. You’ll have nice growth opportunities. I would guess that the new AI capabilities might be implemented for the platform as a whole and not a specific app, so you should have high impact. (75% of Fortune 500 companies are using our platform one way or another) Basically the goal is to have smarter automations and make employees work easier.
Work culture is good at NOW. Stock is growing, so it's a plus on that end. We don't have engg presence in Montreal office, so for large part you will be working with existing ElementAI folks. Having said that, for at least 1 year sole focus will be to re-platform everything that's part of ElementAI to NOW platform. Generally, SanDiego will have very high control of such work. So make sure you clarify what you will be working on. I have seen lot of folks from acquisitions leave. Only top executive stay behind
NOW is a great company and Stock has good growth. In terms of AI, there is a heavy focus on NLP/NLU related problems for the main platform. Consider it a blessing that now acquired Element AI because Element AI is a money burning machine. Nothing would change for your position plus a solid job security.
Thanks, that helps. I have recently accepted the ServiceNow offer and consider the acquisition to be a net positive from my perspective. In addition to job security I'm also hoping to work on some exciting ml features for the Now platform.
Based on glassdoor reviews, ElementAI had nothing going, mainly hype no product or product strategy, mainly spending funds from provincial and federal government, they were lucky to be acquired by ServiceNow. Hopefully, ServiceNow will fix the product strategy part. Curious how it will turn out, good news for Montreal as tech location. 130 K CAD is great for 4 yoe, are you in ML datascience or SWE?
Yup, Backend swe.
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Do you need to stay in Canada? Are you still at MS? Element may pay well for Montreal but I don’t think it’s worth it...people have been fleeing Element for months and had 15% COVID layoffs. Company morale is at an all time low and this acquisition is regarded as a concession at best and failure at worst
I'm based out of Canada already as a PR. I'm not a part of MS, this is an old account. I was laid off from my most recent job at a startup, not working currently. Im aware of the issues at Element prior to the acquisition, but I'm wondering whether the company will have better stability and direction post acquisition.